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Beth Astarte brings new set of skills to new role

Beth Astarte, who began in June as the registrar/administrative assistant with the Pacific Northwest Conference and Central Pacific Conference, is working with Arlene Hobson, PNC executive administrator, for the rest of the year, learning all the aspects of the PNC administrative work.

Beth Astarte began in June as clerk and administrator of the PNC and the Central Pacific Conference. Photo is courtesy of Beth Astarte

Beth will focus on data management, event coordination, and resourcing the Committees on Ministry. 

As she starts, she is attending the Conference Minister Phil Hodson’s Wednesday Office Hours on Zoom to have an opportunity to get to know more folks around the Conference. 

Beth will work two-thirds of her time with the PNC and one-third time with the CPC, along with her work as an independent contractor.

The new role will be about 20 to 30 hours a week, which Beth will do remotely from her home office in Chehalis.

Her primary workdays will be Tuesday to Thursday, and as needed on Mondays and Fridays.

She brings more than 30 years of administrative and database management and bookkeeping experience and a heart for working with churches and nonprofits.

Beth worked at Bethel Congregational UCC in Beaverton, Ore., as program coordinator and financial administrator for eight years before moving to Washington in 2022.
She continues as their bookkeeper.

“Arlene has many responsibilities and carries much institutional knowledge,” she said. “The CPC has been operating without someone for their administrator since their administrator retired at the end of 2024. My main role will be to learn and manage, Salesforce, a new database for both conferences.

“I will continue the communications role and have already been doing the Weekly e-News, and I will continue Arlene’s role supporting the Committee on Ministry,” said Beth, aware Arlene has kept up with what is happening and has skills “I am living into.”

Beth added that submissions for the PNC-UCC weekly Friday eNews are due to Beth by 5 p.m., Wednesdays for inclusion. Items sent later will be for then next week.

The conference will hire a company to scan the documents that the national UCC Ministerial Excellence, Support and Authorization (MESA) team requires to keep all ministerial records in perpetuity.

“Paper files degrade over time and more and more companies are digitizing documents which can be kept on thumb drives and through cloud storage,” Beth said, pointing out that today pdf files are the standard for storage and accessibility.

The PNC has been using Basecamp for meetings and so Annual Meeting reports are kept on that, she added.

Beth feels connected to the UCC, not only from working at Bethel in Beaverton, but also attended Fauntleroy UCC when she lived in Burien.

“I am passionate to help people connect to God and to support people on their faith journeys wherever they are at,” she said.

Her ecumenical upbringing and commitment to educating people in faith began from her Catholic roots, as a high schooler teaching kindergartners in CCD, through involvement with Assembly of God camps, Baptist prayer meetings and several years as the wife of a Disciples of Christ minister.

In 2017, she became a licensed interfaith minister through a Celtic organization, Anam Cara Connections.

Recently, she has been involved at the nearby Unity Church, helping them as they made the difficult decision to close and then with the associated grief and work involved in closing and selling their building.

Beth earned an associate degree in biblical studies in 1984 at Northwest Christian College (now University) in Eugene before attending business school to earn a certificate as a legal administrative assistant. in 2008, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration fro Warner Pacific College.

She worked with the Eugene Chamber of Commerce, a small Eugene company, PacifiCorps, a utility company in Portland and then left the corporate world doing different jobs before the job at Bethel.

“It was wonderful to work in a church to combine my business skills with my heart for helping people build their relationship with God,” she said.

Beth has three grown children, one in Kenmore and two in Beaverton, and enjoys spending time with her three grandsons, traveling, camping and playing the harp, guitar and ukulele.

“I am glad put my skills to use with to help the PNC and CPC carry out their missions, with which I align,” Beth said.

For information, email office@pncucc.org.

 

Pacific Northwest Conference United Church of Christ News © Summer 2025

 

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